Sewald not ‘sharp’ in ugly defeat
Midnight struck for Paul Sewald, and it came with a loud thud.
The 27-year-old rookie, a bright spot in the sputtering Mets bullpen until Friday night, played the part of arsonist instead of fireman in his latest outing.
With the Mets holding a tworun lead, Sewald inherited a runner on first base from ineffective starter Matt Harvey with no outs in the sixth inning. He proceeded to retire just one of the next eight hitters he faced, paving the way for an ugly 12-7 loss to the Pirates at Citi Field.
“I just didn’t really feel like I had the A-plus stuff, and in the major leagues you need your Aplus stuff just about every day,” Sewald said. “Fastball didn’t have a ton of life, slider wasn’t sharp. I just didn’t really make many great pitches.”
Sewald allowed five hits, hit a batter and walked in a run in the nightmarish 32-pitch outing. In a third of an inning, he was charged with five runs — as many runs as he had allowed all season in 20 2/3 innings pitched — and saw his ERA rise from 2.21 to 4.35.
Manager Terry Collins stuck with him so long because he was short in the bullpen, with relievers Fernando Salas and Josh Edgin unavailable because of a heavy workload.
“We said he’s got to get us through this inning and he couldn’t do it,” Collins said. “Paul’s been great — he’s pitched absolutely great — I don’t know what happened tonight.”
Entering the contest, Sewald has given up a run just once in his past seven outings, earning more responsibility in the shaky bullpen, but he clearly didn’t have it.
Jordy Mercer greeted him with a single and Elias Diaz took him deep for his f irst career home run, giving the Pirates an 8-7 lead. It only got worse. Adam Frazier singled, Josh Harrison doubled him in, and Gregory Polanco followed with a single. Sewald hit David Freese and walked Josh Bell to force in a run before he mercifully was pulled.
“For me especially, I have to get ahead of guys, especially when I don’t have a good fastball on top of it,” he said. “I wasn’t ahead, and they hit mistakes. I just had a tough time getting anybody.”